This year I was fortunate enough to travel to Liberia with an amazing group of people to a country that had recently been brought to its knees by a bloody civil war. Having spent my entire life in a comfortable suburban part of New York, I was very ignorant to the state of much of the world.
We, as American Christians, seem to think that watching the news is enough to truly understand the broken state of the world we live in. The Lord said to Abraham “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22:17-18). And Likewise Paul said “Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:7-9).
It is through the line of Abraham that all nations shall be blessed, and it is through faith in Jesus Christ the living son of God that we become the true descendants of Abraham. Anyone who commits himself to God through a life of faith must also commit himself to a life lived for others and to healing the nations that have so greatly suffered.
Jesus once said “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will continue to do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). One’s life must be lived out as a blessing for others. Not just for the people who play a big part in your everyday life, but also for those who you’ve never met, the men and women from other countries who just like you love and live the lives they have been given.
The most important thing I learned on my trip to Liberia was that the world is so much bigger than what social media and the national news networks make us think it is. We don’t all have the same things; it is the duty and purpose of the sons and daughters of Abraham to be a blessing to ALL nations. To raise them up when they fall down and to remind the whole world just how much their God truly loves them. Sometimes people just want to be reminded that they are not alone. That in itself is a blessing worth flying to the other side of the world to give. A love for Christ is a love for all people and all nations!
